Some chose to retain the mortgages to keep overall loan growth afloat. Others were concerned about the interest rate risks of keeping long-term, low-interest loans on the books.

Jason O’Donnell, an analyst who tracks local banks for Boenning & Scattergood, said he saw more banks than usual holding onto mortgage originations. The Federal Reserve has said it will freeze short-term interest rates until 2014.

“Banks often sell long-term residential mortgages on the secondary market because they contain a higher interest rate risk,” O’Donnell said. “It’s always been a debate, but it becomes heightened when there is limited commercial loan demand.”

A look at 100 banks in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions shows an annualized overall loan growth of 6 percent between the third and fourth quarters. But while commercial real estate lending increased 6.9 percent, and commercial and industrial loans by 9 percent, residential mortgage loans were flat at 0.5 percent, according to data from SNL Financial.

Drew Hostetter, chief financial officer at Lititz-based Susquehanna, said about 90 percent of the residential mortgage growth comes from its October acquisition of Abington Bancorp. With Abington being a thrift, it had larger concentration of mortgage loans than a commercial bank like Susquehanna.

But Hostetter said the bank has made some adjustments to deal with economic realities. He said it has always sold conforming mortgage loan originations immediately to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But it now has chosen to keep some adjustable rate mortgages because of slow loan growth.

Phil Wenger, president and COO of Fulton, said the Lancaster-based bank chose to retain some 10- to 15-year residential mortgages it would have sold in years past.

“This is a temporary situation because there just is not a lot of loan demand and yield on investment securities is so low that we are almost looking at these mortgages as replacements,” Wenger said.

CEO Ted Peters said the increase at Bryn Mawr Bank is a product of the bank trying to keep its residential mortgages at between 23 percent and 25 percent of overall loans.

Beneficial declined to explain its reasoning for not retaining some of its mortgages. But O’Donnell said the bank is still de-risking its loan portfolio. It has been conservative with all forms of loan growth.

Fox Chase CEO Tom Petro said his bank owns an equity stake in Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors, a Plymouth Meeting company that serves as the bank’s residential mortgage arm. PMA usually sells the loans it originates. Fox Chase is also encouraging customers to take advantage of the current low refinance rates. But unlike Fulton and Susquehanna, Fox Chase has experienced steady commercial loan demand, with total loans increasing in the fourth quarter by 13 percent on an annualized basis, largely caused by a 55 percent increase in commercial real estate and 27 percent in C&I.

“So we don’t need them in our portfolio,” Petro said. “If you have a 30-year mortgage, what happens five years from now if [interest] rates increase?”